Lauren Bush: the girl who wants to FEED the world

Lauren Bush Lauren's FEED Projects bags have been raising money to feed kids around the globe since 2007. She talks to Phong Luu about her latest collaboration with DKNY.

BY Phong Luu |
01 August 2012

Lauren Bush Lauren with her husband David Lauren Photo: Rex

Her marital name is Lauren Lauren, and she's the niece of Dubya. But don't let that colour your view of Lauren Bush - she's a good egg. She has to be to head a fashion brand that has philanthropy as its
raison d'être
. FEED Projects' bags have been raising money to feed kids around the globe since 2007, a brainwave that came about after her travels as a student spokesman for the UN's World Food Programme while she was still at Princeton (she read anthropology). Ethical doesn't enjoy the sexiest of reputations, but her burlap bags - a play on the sacks that house food rations - have something of Anya Hindmarch's I'm Not a Plastic Bag coolness about them (they've been spotted on the arms of Katie Holmes, Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston).

Lauren Bush Lauren, as she prefers to be known, has persuaded some top-notch names to work with her, including Tory Burch, Gap, Links of London, Clarins and now DKNY. The mini-collection of wellies, nappy bag and tote has just launched in Harrods - in a concession opposite her father-in-law, Ralph Lauren's, funnily enough. The two Laurens have already worked together - she designed a bag for his Rugby line in 2009, the first designer partnership for FEED. He returned the favour by designing her wedding dress when she got married to his son, David, last year. "The brands we've collaborated with obviously really have a desire and will to give back," says Bush Lauren, who is all kinds of glossy-haired, perfectly manicured Wasp. "DKNY isn't making as much money on these bags as they would otherwise: you have to work with companies that are willing to forgo profit." Isn't that a lot to ask? "It is and it isn't. It depends on the company. Anyone who works with us is obviously being generous and wanting to give back and allow their customers to purchase their way into the FEED programme."

The FEED for DKNY diaper bag, £195

There's a passion and compassion there that can't be faked. She herself does not carry any bags other than FEED bags, and rhapsodises at length about how many meals buying a certain FEED design will provide (the original FEED 1 tote keeps food on the plate of one child for a year in countries like Rwanda and Kenya).

Bush Lauren furrows her brow with concern when she talks about the number of people living on the breadline in the US. "Hunger here is a huge issue and it's something most people don't recognise. Forty-nine million Americans are relying on soup kitchens or food stamps to feed their families. And because of the state of the economy, it's gotten worse in the past three years. We are ramping up our efforts by relaunching our FEED USA line."

She's always been a bit of a forward-thinker; aged only four, she decided to stop eating meat. "Once I connected that it came from animals, I just didn't want anything to do with it again," says the 28‑year-old.

She took classes at Parsons and Central Saint Martin's during her summer holidays, and interned with Zac Posen. She also modelled for Abercrombie & Fitch at college. Given the drippy-hippy tag attached to ethical products, might she be tempted to nick a few of their marketing tricks? "Oh, God no!" she laughs. "That wouldn't work."

Integrity to add to the beauty, brains and philanthropy: Lauren Bush Lauren, so good they named her twice.